Do you understand what the purpose of a
numeraire is? Bitcoin is a horrible numeraire because, as stated earlier, the capital pools are so limited and the extreme volatility. Bitcoin is nowhere near being developed enough as a monetary instrument to be using it reliably as a numeraire. There is no other instrument comparable to the USD's or EUR's depth of capital pools.
Using USD or EUR as a base presentation currency for investments that operate only in crypto is not very difficult; just look at
IAS 1. There are plenty of reasons people may invest in SD, mining operations, etc. instead of Bitcoin and that is because of the potential returns when using a solid numeriare like USD or EUR.
I'm not saying that people didn't lose. I'm confused, are you saying that people who invested in Satoshi Dice expected/hoped to get a certain return in USD, despite the obvious volatility of bitcoin? Or are you just observing that if someone bought bitcoins with USD to purchase Satoshi Dice shares within a certain range of dates that would net them a loss in terms of USD.
I just don't see how someone could have invested in Satoshi Dice without realizing that their USD profits would be impacted by bitcoins' volatility.
I understand how people could invest in certain businesses/industries related to bitcoin and expecting return in USD. I also realize that depending on the business/industry they choose their profits with be impacted by volatility.
Edit : The point I'm trying to make is that the volatility of bitcoin has an effect on whether or not investing in Satoshi Dice was a good idea in the end. (this of course depends on how/when/at what price people acquired their bitcoin to invest in Satoshi Dice. However just because bitcoin is volatile does not mean that Erik has wronged anyone by forcing this buyback.